EMBODYING MEMORIES: EARLY BIBLE TRANSLATIONS IN
TRANQUEBAR AND SERAMPORE
Professor Daniel Jeyaraj
Liverpool Hope University
I thank Dr. Emma Wild-Wood, the Director of the Henry Martyn Centre for inviting
me to his lecture.* I am grateful to her and her colleagues for this privilege. I am
happy that this lecture takes place in the Tyndale House. The name of Henry Martyn
evokes fond memories among Indian Christians who are committed to inviting their
neighbors to consider the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. His translation of the
Bible into Persian and his impact on the Urdu Bible are well known. Secondly, I
thank Dr. Peter Williams, the Warden of this renowned place of research on biblical
texts. I bring to you greetings from Liverpool Hope University in general and the
Andrew Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian Christianity in particular. As
a Christian university, we provide higher education to students representing various
traditions and nationalities. In our Centre, we interpret received texts of EuroAmerican missionaries through the lenses of southern Christians and bring a wealth of
capturing insights to bear on our fellow Christians.
I dedicate my lecture to the memory of Henry Martyn, a renowned Bible translator; in
this endeavor, he followed the examples of the Lutherans in Tranquebar; he knew of
them, could never meet them.1 On the other hand, he benefited much from interacting
with the Baptists in Serampore. Therefore, this lecture examines, from historical
perspectives, the role of the Lutherans in translating the Bible into Tamil and the
Baptists into a few languages.
Introductory Remarks
The Bible is a storehouse of long-term memories starting from the creation of the
world and moving through various historical periods, geographical territories, and
lives of numerous individuals, families, and nations. As the Bible has impacted the
lives of countless people, especially their manner of constructing meaning and
behavior, either directly or indirectly, and thus transforming into their
autobiographical memory, it has retained its positive power. Rendering the memories
of the Bible into other languages and cultures requires long-term dedication, team
work and unwavering trust that the translated text of the Bible will, under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, act on its own and produce worthy results. The memories
*
This essay represents a slightly modified version of the lecture delivered on 14 March 2012 and
contributes to the Seminar and Lecture Series commemorating Henry Martyn’s 200 th death
anniversary.
1
Wilberforce, Samuel (ed.): Journals and Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn in Two Volumes, Vol. I,
London: R.B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1837, pp. 279 and 361: Journal entry of 9 October 1805:
“By reading the sermons [perhaps by B. Ziegenbalg in 1716] preached before the Missionary
Society [perhaps the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in London], I was much refreshed
to-day. The interest so many dear and honoured saints are taking in my work, and especially the
accounts of so many missionaries lately gone to Tranquebar, Surat, and the Cape, whom I had some
hopes of seeing, quite gladdened my heart.” Journal entry of 21 April 1806: “On coming on deck
to-day, my eyes were gratified with a sight of India. We were just opposite Tranquebar, about eight
or ten miles distant, and in the course of the day, passed Cuddalore, Pondicherry, &c.”
2
are also associated with different kinds of emotions and loyalties; as such, they either
help or hinder people from interpreting their past, especially their identities, their
present and their future.
This essay examines, from historical and theological perspectives, the early
translations of the Bible into Tamil in Tranquebar and into Bengali and Chinese in
Serampore. Tamil is my mother tongue and I can evaluate the etymological, semantic,
and historical meanings of words and phrases found in different Tamil translations; on
the other hand, I do not understand either Bengali or Chinese; therefore my analysis
of these translations rests purely historical sources. I attempt to highlight how
successful Bible translators were willing to learn from the wisdom and life
experiences of the native scholars and common people, and how they laid firm
foundations for better and more profound translations by future generations.
This essay does not examine the earlier translations of biblical passages into Tamil or
Malayalam or other Indian languages: before the arrival of the Portuguese traders in
1498 under the leadership of Vasco da Gama, the St. Thomas Christians used Syriac
in their churches and Malayalam in their everyday contexts. The Portuguese
introduced the Vulgate for worship in India and otherwise they were satisfied with
their Portuguese version; but the Jesuit missionaries changed the situation: they
translated parts of the Bible into Tamil; though they did not give these translated texts
to common people, they incorporated them into their catechisms, story books,
devotional literature, and grammars. Henrique Henriques (1520–1600), who spent 52
years among the Tamils, composed a Tamil grammar entitled Arte da Lingua
Malabar (1548),2 Tampirān Vanakkam (1578),3 Adiyār Varalāru (1586)4 and created
a basic Tamil vocabulary for Christian communication.
Roberto de Nobili (1577–1656) was the next famous Jesuit, who interacted with the
Tamils on their terms. His knowledge of Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Greek, Hebrew,
Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit enabled him to coin additional words for Christian
worship, theology, and witness. He embraced Sanskrit ways of thought and life so that
he could introduce the message of the Gospel to the custodians of scripture-based
knowledge and rituals in urban temples housing vegetarian deities. Simultaneously,
his younger colleague Balthazar da Costa (1610–1673) catered to the spiritual needs
of those members of the other Tamil social strata who worshipped meat-eating
guardian deities in villages situated in dry land. These Jesuits and their successors
continually sought to adapt themselves to the cultural particularities of the Tamil
peoples and to translate into Tamil the theological teachings of the Council of Trent
(1545–1563).
In the neighbouring Sri Lanka, however, the Dutch preacher Philippus Baldaeus
(1632–1672) employed Francis de Fonseca, a native Tamil, to translate the Bible into
Tamil; consequently, De Fonseca’s translation of Matthew’s Gospel (1670s) became
well-known; while the German Lutheran Pietist missionaries in Tranquebar benefited
2
Hein, Jeanne H.: “Father Henriques’ Grammar of Spoken Tamil, 1548,” Indian Church History
Review, Vol. XI, No. 2, 1977, pp. 127–157; Vermeer, Hans J.: The First European Tamil
Grammar: A Critical Edition, Heidelberg: Julius Groos Verlag, 1982.
3
The title means “Worshipping the Self-Existing One.”
4
The title means “History of Saints” and is a Tamil version of the Flos Sanctorum.
3
from the works of Henriques and De Nobili, they were not aware of de Fonseca’s
translation.
Early Bible Translations in Tranquebar
The small Danish Colony of Tarangambādi (1620–1845), popularly known in
European writings as Tranquebar, became the seedbed of modern Protestant
Christianity in and around the great cities of Tanjore, Trichy, Chennai,
Pālayamkōttai, and Kolkata. This seaport on the southeastern Coromandel Coast
attracted Hindus, Muslims, Roman Catholic Christians, German and Danish
Lutherans, and people of several other religious and ideological persuasions. Two
mosques for Muslims, a Roman Catholic Church for Indian Christians, the Zion
Church for all European Protestant Christians, and fifty-one large and small Hindu
temples stood in this so-called Christian Colony; while Europeans viewed it as legally
and ecclesiastically belonging to the Christendom territory of Denmark, Indians felt
themselves religiously accountable to the King of Tanjore. The trade treaty between
the Danes and the King of Tanjore (1620) ensured that the Europeans in Tranquebar
could freely practice their Augsburg Religion; no Indian was required or expected to
follow the Lutheran tenets; of the eighteen languages spoken in this colony, Tamil
occupied the preeminent position; secondly, Indian Portuguese functioned as the
communication tool between Indians and Europeans. Tamil interpreters such as
Alagappan were fluent at German, Danish, Portuguese, and Dutch.
The origin of the first Lutheran overseas mission was inseparably linked to the
troubling family situation of Friedrich IV, the absolute monarch of Denmark on the
one hand, and to the Lutheran Pietist leaders in Berlin, Copenhagen, and Halle (Saale)
on the other. His court chaplain Franz Julius Lütkens explained that the monarch, who
according to the Peace of Westphalia (1648), determined the religious loyalty of his
subjects at home, should also extend spiritual care to his subjects in overseas colonies;
accordingly, King Friedrich IV ensured that the first missionary candidates B.
Ziegenbalg and H. Plütschau were formally called according to the ordinances of the
Danish Church and ordained for their work in Danish colonies. Following his
instructions, Ziegenbalg and Plütschau landed in Tranquebar on 9 July 1706; initially,
the local colonial authorities did not welcome out of fear that their work might
empower the Tamils to claim their rights and thus damage Danish commercial
prospects. The missionaries endured several types of hardships; with the help of a few
Tamils, however, they were able to develop their work, of which their efforts to
translate the Bible into Tamil was significant.
These missionaries, particularly Ziegenbalg, took their Lutheran convictions
seriously: they realized the importance of incarnation of the Logos as human: God’s
Word can be communicated to the Tamils in their own mother tongue. Like the
Jesuits Ziegenbalg made every effort to understand the historical, cultural, religious
and social meanings of each word that he chose; for this purpose, he complied two
Tamil lexicons: one with words used in Tamil prose and the other one with words
used only in poetry. He upheld the missiological meaning of Martin Luther’s 62nd
thesis: the true treasure of the church is the Gospel of God’s glory and grace. The
Tamils should have the Gospel, i.e., not merely the fourfold portrayals of the life and
work of Jesus by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but all 69 books of the Bible, in
4
their mother tongue so that they can adequately appreciate God’s glory and grace
exhibited to them in Jesus Christ and now made relevant by the Holy Spirit.
Ziegenbalg often reminded himself of the last words of his dying mother: the Bible is
the greatest treasure that she had stored for her children. Therefore, he understood his
mission as a “service to the soul” and “service to the body.” The Tamils should be
able to interact with the texts of the Bible so that they could fully realize the benefits
of the Bible for their soul and body. This Tamil Bible would allow the Tamils to reread their inherited history, religious literature, and socio-cultural practices and see
how they could make them more humane and harmonious for all people.
Ziegenbalg obtained definitive insights from his Pietist mentors, particularly from
Philip Jacob Spener, August Hermann Francke, and Joachim Lange; these men
highlighted the Bible in every aspect of their ministry among students in the
university, schools, orphanages, and churches. They expected their theological
students to read through Hebrew Old Testament at least once a year and the Greek
New Testament at least thrice a year. Ziegenbalg’s classical training in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin enabled him to deal with these texts.
Ziegenbalg’s own conversion experience underlined the importance of harmony
between the Creator and the creature. He perceived that the Bible as the Book of
Grace and creation as the Book of Nature provide a holistic understanding of human
society as it should be: people generally did not know the high status of their creation
in God’s image; their fall into sin disrupted the harmony between God and them.
Jesus’s death on the cross opened new ways of obtaining forgiveness of sins and the
gift of eternal life. This new approach to thinking and living should reestablish and
revitalize harmonious relationships between God and human beings, among one
another, and between human beings and all other creatures; human beings ought to
behave as responsible stewards of God-entrusted natural resources, time, and
opportunities. Thus, conversion means a new way of looking at all inherited
traditions, beliefs, and customs from the perspective of the Gospel and assisting
human beings to experience God’s glory and grace in them. For these purposes, the
Tamils should have the Bible in their mother tongue.
In order to make his translation to work well, he listened to and learned from his cook
Cepperumāl at home, his 70-year old blind teacher and his school children, the Poet
Ganapati Vāttiyār, the Tamil boys and girls in his own mission schools, the Tamil
converts in the Jerusalem Church, his assistant Peter Malaiyappan, interpreter
Alagappan, and countless dialogue partners. By August 1708, he digested the contents
of 119 Tamil writings, mostly on Tamil bhakti religions and codes of ethical conduct:
his reading list included books written by Roman Catholic Christians and Muslim
scholars. As he delightfully translated into German three short works on Tamil ethics,
namely Ulaka Nīti, Kondrai Vēntan, and Nīti Venpā, the high level of Tamil ethics
towards fellow human beings and other creatures surprised him. He observed that the
Tamil attained this high level of ethics without the aid of the Bible; if only they can
read it in their mother tongue, they would scale even higher levels of ethical
achievements.
The richness of the Tamil language and Tamil ways of life astonished him greatly; in
1711, he composed a treatise on Tamil Society and entitled it Malabarian Heathenism.
5
In it, he endeavored to illustrate Tamil notions of theology and ways of life. In order
to substantiate his claims, he incorporated quotes from 73 Tamil works. Two years
later, in 1713, he thematically arranged 145 letters written by his Tamil
correspondents and presented their view on the Hidden God, the Revealed God, spirit
beings, and social customs. He succulently named his work as The Genealogy of the
Malabarian Gods. He and his colleague Gründler continued to receive further letters
from their Tamil correspondents on various themes and compiled another work
entitled The Malabarian Correspondence (1712–1714); the Tamil correspondents
revealed the deeper levels of their socio-cultural and religious world to the German
Lutheran missionaries and they were willing to learn from them.
In this context, Ziegenbalg was able to transcend, at least to some extent, the Lutheran
hatred for Roman Catholics in Europe. He acknowledged that he had readily
borrowed Jesuit words and phrases for God, human beings, sin, salvation, church, and
life. He sought to remove from these words and phrases Roman Catholic nuances and
to fill them with Lutheran contents. Some of these words and phrases include
Parāparavastu (“Divine Substance”),5 Cuvicēcam (“good news”), Caruvēcuran
(“Almighty Lord”), Pāvam (“sin”), Tiruccapai (“holy assembly,” i.e., the church),
Cepam (“prayer”), Karaiyērutal (“getting ashore,” i.e., salvation), and the like. He
approved these translation gains; however, he like the Jesuits before him, could not
find compatible expressions for certain Greek and Portuguese words such as Kurucu
(“cross”), Ispirinthu Cāntu (“Holy Spirit”), and Apōstalar (“apostles”). Therefore, he
simply transliterated them. These Jesuit words and phrases had their prehistory soaked
in Tamil bhakti religions such as Saivism and Vaishnavism. The Jesuits and later the
German Lutherans tried hard to saturate these words and phrases with Christian
meanings and encouraged their Tamil adherents to act on them. However, these words
and phrases have remained ambiguous and contested.
On 17 October 1708, Ziegenbalg started to translate the New Testament. After three
years, on 31 March 1711, he could complete the first draft; he revised it many times
before he printed the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles on 25 September 1714.
By September 1715, the entire New Testament was printed. By the time of his death
in February 1719, he had translated all the Old Testament books from Genesis to
Joshua. It is interesting that he preferred the colloquial form of Tamil as spoken by the
fisher folk in Tranquebar to the poetic form of Tamil cultivated by literati. He was not
prepared to impress people with beautiful rhymes of words and phrases; instead, he
wanted all Tamils, however untrained they were, to be able to comprehend the
intended meanings of the biblical writers. He called the Bible Cattiya Vētam (“the
“True Knowledge” that is capable of offering salvation).
Ziegenbalg could have been much better and more effective translator if he had not
allowed his pride to hamper his work: his overconfidence, at least as he portrayed it to
his European readers, prevented him from seeking corrections and revisions of his
draft texts. He confessed that he single handedly translated the texts and wrote them
as prose. Usually Tamil scholars used poems to express their ideas; but their everyday
5
This epithet stands for the Supreme Being who incorporates all paradoxes of realities as male and
female, heavenly and earthly, good and not-good, and the like. It could stand for the homoousios
(“the same substance”) and the homoiousios (“the similar substance”) in Greco-Christology.
6
language was prosaic. Instead of seeking their help, Ziegenbalg claimed to have
translated biblical texts all alone.6
His successors, especially Benjamin Schultze and Christoph Theodosius Walter, were
bent on revising Ziegenbalg’s translation. Schultze declared that he first read the
Hebrew text and understood its meanings; then he consulted various European
translations of the same text in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Danish, Dutch, and
German. He discussed the content of the text with knowledgeable Tamils and dictated
a Tamil version to his assistant Peter Malaiyappan. As the latter read it aloud,
Schultze tried to assess whether the Tamil text communicated the same meaning of
the Hebrew text and whether those around him could comprehend it; if there were
doubts, he sought the help of a Brahmin scholar.
Even then, Schultze’s Tamil is not great. He preferred to spend more time with the
texts that he translated, whether it was the Bible or Freylinghausen’s hymns or Johann
Arndt’s True Christianity or the Garden of Paradise. His interaction with the Tamil
people in the schools, at the church, and in the society was limited; as a result, he and
his close associates understood the texts that they translated. His colleague Walter and
his successors, especially Johann Philip Fabricius (1711–1791) revised the Tamil
texts repeatedly. Fabricius is known for the Golden Translation of the Bible (1758–
1777), which most of the Tamil Lutherans still use in their worship services.
When Claudius Buchanan, the Evangelical Chaplain of Kolkata, visited the Tamil
area, he noticed the contributions of these Lutherans to the Tamil Bible; in 1806, he
participated in the first centenary celebration of the arrival of the Lutheran
missionaries in Tranquebar and particularly commended their translation
accomplishments:
“During the whole of the last century, Providence favoured them [i.e., the Hindus in
southern India] with a succession of holy and learned men, educated at the Universities
of Germany: among whom was the venerable Swartz, called the Apostle of the East;
and others not much inferior to him; men whose names are scarcely known in this
country [i.e., Britain], but who are as famous among the Hindoos, as Wickliffe and
Luther are amongst us. The ministry of these good men was blessed in many provinces
in the south of India, and bounds of their churches are extending into this day. The
language of the country is called the Tamul; and the first translation of the Bible in that
language was made, as we said, about a hundred years ago. Like Wickliffe’s Bible with
us, it became the father of many versions, and, after a succession of improved editions,
it is now considered by the Brahmins themselves (like Luther’s Bible in German) as a
classical standard of the Tamul tongue.”7
6
Halle Reports, Vol. I, Continuation 1, pp. 19: “In der Translation selbsten aber gedenke ich ganz
allein zu seyn, ohne daß ich nur einen malabarischen Schreiber bey mir habe, den ich alles in
Griffel dictiren könne: Sintemal ich hierinnen keine Hülfe von anderen nötig habe, auch solche
nicht bekommen könnte, wenn ich sie gleich verlangte. Denn es ist allhier weder unter den Christen
noch Malabaren einer, so da verstünde nur periodum rechtmäßig ohne vitiis translatieren. ”
7
Buchanan, Claudius: Star in the East: A Sermon preached in the Parish-Church of St. James in
Bristol, on Sunday, Feb. 26, 1809, for the Benefit of the Society for Missions to Africa and the East,
8th American Edition, New York: Williams & Whiting, 1809, p. 12.
7
As times changed and translators were able to gain deeper insight into the Tamil
language, newer and more eloquent translations began to appear: some of the famous
translators were C.T. Rhenius (1790–1838), Henry Bower (1812–1885), C.H.
Monahan, Rājarīgam, and several others.8 Nowadays, the Tiruviviliyam (“the Holy
Bible,” 1995), translated by a group of Roman Catholic and Protestant biblical
scholars, is promoted as the common translation for both Roman Catholic and
Protestant traditions. It will take more time for the Protestants to accept this new
version of the Tamil Bible because most senior members in Protestant congregations
appreciate the Bower’s translation; they have memorized various verses from this
Bible; when they learn to promote the Tiruviviliyam, others will also learn to use it.
In the meantime, a survey of various words used for God shows the linguistic and
theological complexity of translation: most Hindus uphold the teachings of the Rig
Veda (1.164.46): “The Truth is one; but the learned state it differently.” Therefore,
they are unable to attribute ultimate validity to one particular divine manifestation.
Therefore they have difficulty in recognizing the distinct claims of Christian Trinity in
general, and Jesus Christ in particular; yet, De Nobili and Ziegenbalg happily
introduced God with the word Saruvēcuran (“Lord of all”); by contrast, Walter
preferred another word Parāparan (“the Being” that comprises all apparent
paradoxes); C.T. Rhenius used Tarparan (“Self-Existing Lord”); H. Bower was
satisfied with the word Dēvan (“god” in the sense of a deity); but the translators of the
Tivuviviliyam (“the Holy Book” )seek to convey the concept of God through the word
Kadavul (“the One who has gone through everything”); except this last epithet, all
words are masculine nouns that can have feminine parallels. All translators had
difficulty in finding proper Tamil nouns that are capable of expressing the personhood
and divinity of the Holy Spirit. The transliteration of the Portuguese word Ispirinthu
Sāntu did not satisfy anyone; similarly, the noun Arūbi (“a formless god”) had its own
difficulty. Finally, translators have agreed to use phrase Paricutta Āvi (“the holy
breath, soul, mind, power”). Whenever Christians refer to this phrase, they remind
themselves of the personhood and divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Despite of these problems, the Tamil Bible has already fulfilled certain significant
functions for individuals and their families: most Tamil Christians hail(ed) from
social strata that were considered to be outside of the four-fold Hindu Varna-System;
as such they were deemed unworthy and unfit to worship God or read the scriptures as
those of these four Varnās. The Tamil Bible became their alternate scripture that was
more readily understandable than the holy texts of the Hindus expressed in Sanskrit or
Manipiravālam or in difficult Tamil poems. The Tamil Bible enabled women and
men, girls and boys to gather for corporate worship under the same roof. To some
degree, they were able to transcend the social and ritual divisions enforced not only
by the Varna-System, but also by countless Jātis (“birth-based groups”) with specific
habits of eating food, entering marriage alliances, and keeping ritual purity. They are
yet to fully learn the reality and implications of equality before God and human
beings.
8
For a fuller history of the Tamil Bible see Kulandran, Sababathy: A History of the Tamil Bible,
Bangalore: Bible Society of India, 1967; Pākkiyamuttu, Carōjini: Viviliyammum Tamilum, 2nd ed.,
Citampram: Meyyppan Tamilāyvakam, 2000 (1990); Israel, Hephzibah: Religious Transactions in
Colonial South India: Language, Translation, and the Making of Protestant Identity, New York:
Palmgrave Macmillan, 2011.
8
The Tamil Bible has taught them how by God’s grace and faith in Jesus Christ they
can break the endless cycle of births and deaths known as Karmasamsāra and attain
Moksha (“liberation” in the sense of salvation); their eternity with God as revealed by
Jesus Christ does not begin after their death, but now itself. The fact that God in
Christ loves them, cares for them, touches them, and heals them has released
formidable transformative power. With fresh dignity and self-worth, as beloved
people created in God’s image, these people seek and reach social upward mobility.
These new attitudes, thoughts, and behavior patterns change the society and make it
more humane. These positive characteristics outweigh the troubles found among
Christian communities; Tamil Christians are yet to discover ways of not becoming
slaves to power, prestige, politics, privileges, and possession of movable and
immovable properties, but turning them into opportunities for better service; they are
on the way towards a better future. The tension of God’s reign as the reality of
“already-and-not-yet” is evident in their lives.
Early Bible Translations in Serampore
Before the British Baptist missionaries reached Kolkata, there were Roman Catholic
and Lutheran missionaries; Anglican ministers and chaplains served their own people
in the capital city that housed the administrative headquarters of the English East
India Company. The Battle of Plassey (1757) marked the ascension of the English to
political, economic, and military power. The trade and administrative policy of the
English East India Company aimed to please those Muslims and Hindus who worked
for them as merchants, interpreters, intelligence gatherers, soldiers, account keepers,
and go-betweens. As a result, they were anti-Christian in a sense that they did not
want to introduce Christianity to Indians.
In 1758, Robert Clive, the hero of the Battle of Plassey, enabled John Zecharias
Kiernander9 to work as a Lutheran missionary in Kolkata. Earlier, Kiernander worked
as a Tranquebar missionary in Cuddalore in Tamil area; after the French had taken
over this city, Kiernander as a Protestant missionary had to leave the city and move to
Kolkata. There the Anglican clergymen Henry Butler and Henry Cape helped him
greatly. Kiernander established a school with 175 children. He also founded in
Kolkata the Lal Girija (“the Red Church”), also known the Beth Beth Tephilla
(“House of Prayer”) or the Old Mission Church. In the 1790s, he was frail, bankrupt,
and almost blind. Two years earlier, the Danes had established their trading post
Friedrichsnagar / Serampore, about 12 miles north of Kolkata. Bartholomäus Lebrecht
Ziegenbalg, the only surviving son of the founder of Tranquebar Mission became its
first director (1758–1760); He invited Kiernander to conduct divine services in
Serampore. Thus, the Lutherans related to Tranquebar Mission were already at work
in Kolkata; towards the end of the 18th century, however, Lutheran witness in the city
of Kolkata became almost non-existent so that the Baptist missionaries incorrectly
assumed thought that they were the first Protestant missionaries there.
9
Sandegren, Herman: John Zacharias Kiernander: The First Swedish Missionary in India, translated
from the Swedish Original (1924) by E. Wimmercranz, Madras, National Missionary Society Press,
1928.
9
These Baptist missionaries included John Thomas,10 William Carey11 and Dorothy
Carey. When they arrived in Kolkata, they were not welcome there because,
according to the Church of England, they were dissenters and, moreover, they did not
bring with them any ecclesiastical permission from the Archbishop of Canterbury or
the Bishop of London. These Baptists were not trained in Cambridge or Oxford.
Instead, they came from artisan families such as shoe-makers, weavers, and printers.
Due to their trade, they had learnt the art of relating to all kinds of people. They were
filled with evangelistic zeal to spread God’s Word among the Bengalis;
The Anglicans in Kolkata found these characteristics strange and were unwelcoming.
Consequently, the Baptists had to undertake a job at an indigo factory in Midnapore;
this work provided them opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the Bengali
language and culture. Earlier, Carey had learnt the basics of this language from John
Thomas and Nathaniel Brassey Halhead’s Bengali Grammar (1778). Fortunately, he
practiced his Bengali with the learned Brahmin Ramram Basu (c. 1751–1813), who,
as an interpreter at the Supreme Court in Kolkata, was well-versed in Bengali,
Sanskrit, Persian, and perhaps to some extent in English. He was John Thomas’
Bengali teacher. During his continued stay in Midnapore, Carey discovered Bengali
ways of constructing meaning and setting priorities for life and action; he informed
himself about their hierarchical and horizontal social and ritual relationships and
networks; he learned much about their uncertainties about the changing prospects of
their life in relation to Bengali rulers and the administrators of the English East India
Company; yet he was able to appreciate their determination and perseverance to aspire
for a better future.
In 1798, George Udney donated to Carey a wooden press for printing and Carey was
able to make concrete plans to publish his translation of the Bengali Bible. By
October of the following year, younger members of the Baptist Missionary Society,
namely William Ward and Joshua Marshman,12 and their wives reached Kolkata, but
was refused entry; hence, they proceeded to the nearby Danish settlement of
Serampore; at their request, Colonel Olaf Bie, who had personally knew the work of
the Royal Danish Halle Missionaries in the southeast Indian Danish colony of
Tranquebar, and respected Christian Friedrich Schwartz, provided permission to live
there.
Soon, Carey also joined them; and this small Danish colony became a hub of Baptist
missionary activities. Carey, Ward, and Marshman, as non-conformists and people of
the working class (i.e., shoe making, printing or teaching in a school), could not enjoy
formal university education; yet, they were self-taught scholars. Their closeness to
ordinary people eminently prepared them for their translation work.
10
Lewis, C.B.: The Life of John Thomas, Surgeon of the earl of Oxford East Indians, and First Baptist
Missionary to Bengal, London: McMillian & Co., 1873.
11
For an early biography on Carey, see Carey, Eustace: Memoir of William Carey with an Introductory
Essay, Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1836.
12
Marshman, John Clark: The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward embracing the History
of the Serampore Mission in Two Volumes, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans &
Brothers, 1859.
10
The Baptist missionaries were fortunate to obtain practical help from Panchanan
Karmakar and his younger brother Manohar Karmakar, who skilfully cut languagespecific fonts and punches; Panchanan, an assistant to Charles Wilkins, cut fonts for
Bengali, and the like. Using these found, on 7 February 1801, the Baptist missionaries
printed the entire New Testament in Bengali They, however, understood their work as
a preparation for God’s reign in Kolkata; they tilled the ground and sowed the seed; in
future, it would grow and produce results.13 One of their first fruits was the carpenter
Krishna Pal,14 who as a follower of Jesus Christ dared to renounce his caste pride and
ate with the Baptist missionaries, whom he would have otherwise avoided as
detestable Mlecchas (“barbarians”). His conversion encouraged the missionaries to
persevere.
In the meantime, in the mission field, away from the English centers of
interdenominational rivalries between the members of the established Church of
England and the dissenters, the Baptist missionaries in Serampore and the Anglican
chaplains of the English East India Company could forge lasting (ecumenical)
friendship for the sake of mission among the non-Christians. In 1804, the first
Evangelical Chaplain David Brown, who lived in Serampore since 1803, became the
provost of the newly established the College of Fort William; the Anglo-Indian civil
servants of the English East India Company got their training in Indian languages,
religions, and ways of life.15 For this purpose, Brown appointed capable teachers of
several Indian languages; he installed William Carey as the professor of Bengali and
Sanskrit; Carey was so enthused about the possibility of working with these scholars
in one place and soliciting their help in revising his earlier translation drafts and
initiating new translations of the Bible into several Asian languages; on 14 December
1805, he expressed his hope in these words:
“We have it in our power, if our means would do for it, in the space of about fifteen
years, to have the Word of God translated and printed in all the languages of the East.
Our situation is such as to furnish us with the best assistance from the natives of the
different countries. We can have types of all the different characters cast here. About
700 rupees per month, part of which we shall be able to furnish, could complete the
work. On this great work we have fixed our eyes. Whether God will enable us to
accomplish it, or any considerable part of it, is uncertain.”16
13
Stennett, Samuel: Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. William Ward, London: J. Haddon, 1825, p. 81.:
“With a Bible and a Press posterity will see that a missionary will not labour in vain even in India.
There is a time to break down, a time to sow, and a time to reap.”
14
For further information on Krishna Pal, see Ward, William: Brief Memoir of Krishna-Pal, the First
Hindoo, in Bengal, who broke the Chain of the Cast, by Embracing the Gospel, Serampore: Mission
Press, 1822; 2nd ed., London: John Offor, 1823.
15
Chatterton, Eyre: A History of the Church of England in India Since the Early Days of the East India
Company, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1924, p. 111: In 1800, Governor
General Marquis Wellesley started this college to train Junior Civil Servants because “they needed
fuller knowledge of India, its customs, laws, languages, and people, before it was wise to place
them in stations by themselves. […] This Fort College had but a short life. For various reasons,
partly climatic, partly opposition to Lord Wellesley, the Court of Directors decided to abandon it
for a home training at Halleybury.”
16
Underhill, Edward Bean: “Bible Translation,” The Centenary Volume of the Baptist Missionary
Society, eds. John Brown Myers and William John Henderson, London: Baptist Missionary Society,
1892, pp. 272–309:279.
11
By that time, Carey had already composed a grammar for Bengali and Marathi; he
was in the process of compiling a grammar for Sanskrit (1806); in Carey’s opinion
Sanskrit gave birth to several Indian languages. At the same time, in order to more
fully understand the religious attitudes and thoughts of the Vaishnavite Hindus in
Kolkata, he and Marshman translated Vālmikī’s Rāmāyanā into English.17 All these
linguistic and religious preparations had their limits. He and Marshman kept on
revising their drafts and seeking help from Hindus, Muslims and others,
“who both translate and sometimes write out rough copies; and should think it criminal
not to do so. But we never print any translation till every word has been revised and rerevised. Whatever helps we employ, I have never yet suffered a single word, or a single
mode of construction, to pass without examining it and seeing through it. I read every
proof-sheet twice or thrice myself, and correct every letter with my hand. Brother
Marshman and I compare with the Greek or Hebrew, and brother Ward reads every
sheet. Three of the translations, Bengali, Hindustani, and Sanscrit [sic], I translate with
my own hand; the two last immediately from the Greek; and the Hebrew Bible before
me, while I translate the Bengali. […] Indeed, I have never yet thought anything perfect
that I have done. I have no scruple, however, in saying that I believer every translation
that we have printed to be a good one.”18
Even the best form of Carey’s language found wanting. When he consulted the
learned scholars the College of Fort William, he confessed that the
“alterations are great and numerous, not so much in what related to the meaning as to
the construction. I hope it will be tolerably correct, as every proof sheet is revised by us
all, and compared as exactly with the original as brother Marshman and I are capable
of, and subject to the opinion and animadversions of several pundits.”19
At this juncture, fully realizing their limitations, Carey and his colleagues expressed
the rationale for training Indian Christians to engage in Bible translations: all
Christians have the grateful obligation to invite the people to know the Bible which is
understood as the “book of life” and the “fountain of knowledge.” Europeans,
however gifted they are, can never master Indian languages as Indians can. They
might understand the grammar for words, sentences, texts of various literary genres;
but they cannot get beneath their nuanced meanings, emotions, and attachments.
Moreover, even able Europeans, who have invested enormous amount of time,
energy, and resources in acquiring Indian languages and examining local cultures,
become sick, leave or die; and their knowledge dies with them. Therefore, training
Indian students to think in their languages in an informed manner and to learn
Sanskrit, Greek, and Hebrew will enable them to make use of the “original
17
Carey, William and Joshua Marshman: The Ramayuna of Valmeeki, Translated from the Original
Sungskrit: Vol I Containing the First Book, Dunstable: J.W. Morris, 1808, pp. iii–iv: “A
considerable degree of interest has for some time been excited in Europe relative to the antiquities
and literature, the manners and customs, of the Hindoos. Accordingly every degree of intelligence
respecting them has been received with avidity; some of their writings have been translated,
dissertations written, and where authentic intelligence has failed, conjecture has attempted to satisfy
the public mind. It is not, however, from conjecture, nor even from partial translations, that the
public can derive satisfactory information on these subjects. A clear idea of the religion and
literature, the manners and customs of the Hindoos, can be obtained only from a connected perusal
of their writings.”
18
Underhill, 1892, pp. 285 f.
19
Underhill, 1892, p. 279.
12
foundations of sacred knowledge” and to “leave all the rest to the gracious operation
of the Spirit of God.”20 This idea resulted in the formation of the New College in
Serampore (1818), in which both Christian and non-Christian students were trained in
several disciplines, including theology.
By 1820, Carey and his team published the entire Bible in five languages, namely
Bengali, Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, and “Kyt’hee,” and the New Testament in ten other
languages including Chinese, Telugu, Assamese, Konkani, Gujarathi, the Sikh
languages of Punjabi and Multan, Pastho of Afghanistan, Bikaner of Rajasthan, and
Kashmere.21 Carey and his colleagues understood the vernacular versions of the Bible
as lights that would brighten entire India.22 They also realized the indispensable role
of Indian Christian leaders in translating the Bible directly from Hebrew and Greek
into their mother tongue; they believed Indians would learn Hebrew, a West Asian
language and Greek which resembled Sanskrit in many ways. They believed that
Indians would learn these languages more easily than Europeans because Indian
culture and society were greatly similar to the social lifestyles reflected in the Bible.23
Moreover, countless Indians had already mastered Arabic, which was “so much more
complex and copious than Hebrew.” Similarly, Indians who know Sanskrit could
more readily master Greek because Sanskrit grammar was superior to Greek; singular
and plural nouns, active and passive voices, and prepositions have similar structure.24
20
Carey, William, Joshua Marshman and William Ward: College for the Instruction of Asiatic
Christians and Other Youth in Eastern Literature and European Science at Serampore, Bengal,
London: Black, Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1819, p. 33.
21
Carey, W., et al.: Seventh Memoir Respecting the Translations of the Sacred Scriptures into the
Langauges of India conducted by the Bretheren at Serampore, Serampore: Mission Press, 1820, pp.
5–7.
22
Carey, Seven Memoir …, 1820, p. 13: “A city is not illuminated by filling abundantly with light in a
single house, or even a small street therein, but by distributing light through all its principal parts.
To enlighten India effectually, the Scritpures mus tbe given in the dialects of its different
provinces.”
23
Carey, Seven Memoir …, 1820, pp. 30–31: “But relative to the completion of these different versions
of the Scritpures in the dialects of India, their hope [of the Baptist missionaries in Serampore]
under the Divine blessing rests chiefly on the exertions of the Natives themselves. […] It seems
reasonable that Native Christians in India should not remain for ever without a knowledge of the
Languages in which the Sacred Scriptures were given; a little reflection may indeed convince us,
that a knowledge of these will ever be desirable. Translations of the Scritprues, however excellent,
can never equal the original: were there no other difference, it will always form an important one,
that there are many words both in the Hebrew and Greek Scritpures, which have more than one
meaning. […]As to Hebrew it is more natureally theirs than ours: it belongs to asia, and justly
forms a principal part of Oriental Literature. […] The manners and customs described in the Sacred
Writings assimilate for more with those in India, than with those existing in modern Euroe; and
numerous words occuring therein, are at this day used in India in their proper and natural sense.”
24
Carey, Seven Memoir …, 1820, p. 31: “To the Greek langauge the Sangskrita scholar has an unerring
clue. No two langauges of different origin resemble each othe rmore strangly [than these]. In its
nouns, the singular, dual, and plural numbers, in its verbs, the actice, passive, and middle voices –
its twnety prepoisitions almost the same in sound as well as in force and meanint, - its wonderful
facility for compounding words and expressing the incest shades of idea, render the Sangskrita
quite a counterpart to the Greek languael while its grammatical structure is so accurate and
exquistive, that, compared with the most consie of the Sangskrita gammars, the fullest Greek
grammer now in use, is little more than an imperfect sketch compared with a finsihed picture. To a
youth trained up in the study of Sangskrita, therefore, the qcquisiton of the Greek language can orm
no hardship.”
13
Thus, Carey and his colleagues laid a firm foundation for Indian Christian translators
of the Bible.
Chinese Bible Translations in Serampore
It is of great interest that the first Chinese New Testament was printed in Serampore.
Carey and colleagues found out that both Chinese and Sanskrit were the mother
languages from which respectively several East Asian and North Indian languages
emerged.25 Therefore, in order to reach the 300 million Chinese speakers of that time,
Joshua Marshman began translating the Bible into Chinese. Claudius Buchanan, the
second Evangelical Chaplain in Kolkata, persuaded Marshman to accept this difficult
task. In Kolkata, he had already met Johannes Lassar (1781–ca. 1835), an Armenian
merchant, who was born and raised in Macao, therefore was fluent at colloquial
Chinese that he had learnt and spoken from his childhood; he was also able to read
and write Chinese (most probably Mandarin). Buchanan introduced Lassar to
Marshman in Serampore; he had requested the universities at Cambridge and Oxford
to allow two sermons to be preached on the necessity of this translation. With the
money raised there, Buchannan supported Lassar with a monthly salary of Rupees
300 for fifteen years.26 Lassar used the Portuguese-Chinese Dictionary, compiled by
the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste du Halde (1674–1743) and taught Chinese to Marshman, his
son John Marshman, and Jabez Carey. An unnamed Chinese native speaker from
Guangzhou seems to have helped them as well.27
In order to reach to the depths of Chinese psyche, thought patterns, and construction
of meaning and communication among and between diverse kinds of relationships,
Marshman studied Confucius writings, translated some of them into English, and
published them in Serampore.28 Five years later, in 1814, Marshman rejoiced in
printing both Confucius’ original and its English translating.29 It is interesting to note
that Marshman, like Ziegenbalg a century earlier, preferred to use the colloquial form
of Chinese and rejected the classical styles of impressive communication by sociocultural elites. His preference for colloquial language would be critiqued later on.
25
Carey, Seven Memoir …, 1820, p. 41: The Baptist missionaries in Serampore “have found in the
course of their work that the dialects of India and of Eastern Asia, numerous as they appear, may
almost all be traced to two sources, the Sungskrita and the Chinese; and therefore that a knowledge
of these two languages, sheds a prodigious degree of light over the various languages of India.
26
Marshman, John Clark: The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward embracing the History
of Serampore Mission in Two Volumes, Vol. I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, &
Roberts, 1859, pp. 234 and 244.
27
Hanan, Patrick: “The Bible as Chinese Literature: Medhurst, Wang Tao, and the Delegates’
Version,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 63, No. 1, 2003, pp. 197–239:198: The Chinese
Bible printed in Serampore in 1822 was “the work of a mere handful of people: the missionary
Joshua Marshman, his collaboraor Johannes Lassar (an Armenian from Macao), Marshman’s
unnamed Chinese assistant from Guangzhou, and, occasionally Marshman’s son John.”
28
Marshman, Joshua: The Works of Confucius containing the Original Texts with a Translation: A
Dissertation on the Chinese Language and Character, Vol. I, Serampore: Mission Press, 1809.
29
Marshman, J.: Elements of Chinese Grammar with a Preliminary Dissertation on the Characters,
and the Colloquial Medium of the Chinese and an Appendix containing the Ta-Hyoh of Confucius
with a Translation, Serampore, 1814.
14
If Marshman and Lassar had cooperated with the other two contemporary Bible
translators, namely Robert Morrison (1782–1834) in Guangzhou and William Milne
(1785–1722) in Malacca, both of the London Missionary Society, their translation
would have been different, perhaps better. Since 1814, they had known about each
other’s work; in 1815, Marshman even printed Morrison’s Chinese grammar in
Serampore. Morrison’s preface to this grammar was dated “Macao, 2nd April 1811”30
and thought that his was the first English work on Chinese grammar. It seems that
difference of opinions pertaining to Lassar’s ability as a translator and loyalties to
their respective mission agencies kept prevented cooperation.
The Chinese version by Marshman and Lassar, entitled Sheng Jing, was printed in
1822. In the following year, in 1823, Morrison and Mile published their version of the
Chinese Bible entitled Shentian Shengshu; Hanan notes that both Marshman and
Morrison followed the words, idioms, and syntax of the Bible as inspired text and
sought to fit them into Chinese. As a result, their translation sounded “awkward.”31 In
1890, John Wherry (1837–1918), the Presbyterian missionary, voiced a similar
concern:
“Compared with the Bibles in current use to-day the style [of Marshman and Lassar] is
crude, often painfully so. Its infelicities are due to too great an effort after literalism, to
narrowness of range in the translator’s vocabulary, unfamiliarity with important
principles of grammatical structure, to the lack of Chinese terms at that early date to
express Biblical and Christian ideas. Still, it is surprising how much of the actual
contents of the book is good current Chinese, and that a large proportion of it appears,
ipsissimis verbis [i.e., word for word] in subsequent translations.”32
Hanan summarized various evaluations of linguistic achievements by Morrison and
Milne and concluded that the style of their Chinese translation was “intolerably
unidiomatic and disfigured.”33 William Milne felt that learning Chinese required
“bodies of iron, lungs of brass, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles,
hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah.”34 Even then, he and
his colleague Morrison had to be satisfied with their work being a valuable draft for
better translations in future.
Troubles in Serampore and Kolkata
Convinced by their characteristic understanding of baptism through immersion, the
Baptist missionaries in Serampore translated the Greek verb baptizo into an active
Bengali verb doba (“to sink”); they believed that the Bengali-speakers would
understand this verb more readily than the transliterated Greek verb baptizo, as
preferred by other Bengali translators.35 Consequently, the British and Foreign Bible
30
Morrison, Robert: A Grammar of the Chinese Language, Serampore: Mission Press, 1815.
31
Hanan, 2003, p. 200.
32
Underhill, 1892, p. 279.
33
Hanan, 2003, p. 200.
34
Quoted in Taylor, Howard: Hudson Taylor in Early Years: the Growth of a Soul, London: China
Inland Mission, 1930, p. 86.
35
Underhill, 1892, pp. 297 f. See Hanan, 2003, p. 198 for a similar disagreement with regard to
Chinese Bible translation as well: “The main doctrinal difference arose with the Baptists, who
chose not to participate in the preparation of the Delegates’ Version [1854] because they could not
15
Society (1804) that partially funded the translation of the Bible into Chinese withdrew
its support to the Baptist missionaries in Serampore.
Carey’s appointment in the College of Fort William enabled the Baptists in Serampore
to survive and carry out their work for the next few years. Soon, troubles erupted in
this College of Fort William: in 1804, John Borthwick Gilchrist (1759–1841),
Professor of Hindustani, believed that if Indians would read the Bible in their own
languages and compare them with their sacred scriptures, they might consider
becoming the followers of Jesus Christ. No sooner this idea was placed before the
trainees of civil service than conflicts broke out. In February 1804, Buchanan reported
that Muslim and Hindu employees and associates of the English East India Company
protested against English disregard for toleration and administrative neutrality;
Buchanan stated that “the old civil servants fan the flame.”36
In this context, William Ward raised an alarm bell. He wondered whether the
priorities of Carey and Marshman in translating the Bible were unrealistic and
impractical. In his journal of 27 April 1806 he stated that Carey and Marshman
wasted their time in attempting to translate the Bible into those languages that they
did not understand well; they would not be able to distribute their translated works to
others; they failed to realize that the grammars and dictionaries of the Jesuits “are now
rotting in the libraries of Rome.”37 In spite of these and other major setbacks,
including the devastating disaster caused by fire in 1812, the Carey and Marshman
persevered with determination and developed their work to an admirable degree.
In October 1825, the Quarterly Papers published a facsimile version of Mathew 4:16
in thirteen languages: “The people who sat in darkness saw great light.”38 This
statement sums up the attitude of the Baptist missionaries to their work: in
comparison to the clarity and brightness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, non-Christian
systems of faith and socio-cultural achievements appeared dark, inadequate, unclear,
and mysterious. Yet, these missionaries were careful to ascertain the presence and
preparatory works of God through their societies, cultures, languages, scriptures,
worldviews, and all other moral and religious achievements. In this case, they were
grafting the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the already existing knowledge and
experience of God among Indians. The resultant Christianity, as it continues to evolve
in Indian contexts, is a tribute to the works of these and other missionaries before and
after them.
accept the proposed Chinese translation of ‘baptize’ and other words [like apostles, bishop,
presbyter, deacon, and the like]; instead they continued to use Lassar and Marshman’s version
(Marshman was a Baptist) until a new version was made by Josiah Goddard and William Dean.”
36
Pearson, Hugh: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, Late Vice Provost
of the College of Fort William of Bengal, Philadelphia: Benjamin & Thomas Kite, 1817, p. 214.
37
Smith, A. Christopher: The Serampore Mission Enterprise, Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary
Christianity, 2005, p. 319.
38
Quarterly Papers for the use of the Weekly and Monthly Contributors to the Baptist Missionary
Society, No. 16, October 1825, title page.
16
Conclusion
The linguistic aspects of all translations of the Bible, and not its contents, should be
understood as tentative drafts because languages are living entities and they change
according to the influences and needs of their context and spirit of their age; therefore,
scholars in successive generations will seek to improve the effect and accuracy of
communication so that the readers and listeners are able to discern the implied
meanings of God’s Word and act on them. In this regard, the pioneer translations by
the Lutherans in Tranquebar and the Baptists in Serampore broke new grounds in
cross-cultural translation; they generated translation methods that could be debated
and improved. Their imperfect translations were meaningful and powerful enough to
positively transform the lives of several Indians. The Baptists in Serampore knew
about the translation achievements of the Lutherans in Tranquebar, but they were
unwilling to receive their advice on this matter.
Secondly, the Lutherans and the Baptists did not have to begin their translation from
the scratch; instead they had access to grammars, dictionaries, and limited translation
works of the Jesuits in their region. The Lutherans got little help from English
Chaplains at Fort St. George in Chennai; they met English Governors there; but the
animosity shown to them by the Danish Governor in Tranquebar prevented the
English Governor from extending any help to the Lutherans. But the situation of the
Baptists was different. Initially, the English East India Company in Kolkata
prohibited Baptist work in the city. After the Danes granted them favour in
Serampore, situations changed and the Baptists could discuss their ideas and plans
with other British Orientalists associated with the Asiatic Society (1784) in Kolkata,
Indian Reformers such as Raja Rammohun Roy, Governor Generals of the English
East India Company such as Marquis Wellesley and William Bentinck, and
Evangelical Chaplains such as David Brown and Claudius Buchanan; together they
were able to work towards abolishing the abominable socio-religious practices of
female infanticide and sati. With the help of a few scholars of the College of Fort
William they could promote their translation of the Bible into several languages.
Thirdly, these Bible translations embody the memories of their team work and
attempts to find appropriate words or coin new phrases; these Bibles bear witness to
the art of cutting fonts, manufacturing paper, and the use of printing press; in order to
make their translations understandable, they examined the socio-cultural and religious
life of the people in Tranquebar or in Serampore; thus, they were able to propagate
what they discovered in collaboration with their Indian partners.
Finally, the translations of the Bible in Tranquebar and Serampore have enabled
Indian Christians to form alternate communities with an alternate scripture: only a few
of them hail from the lower strata of the Varna-System; most of them, however, come
from those groups who are excluded from. These Avarna-groups39 derive their
inspiration for life from the Bible in their mother tongue; with its help they evaluate
their inherited worldviews, assumptions, and traditions and see how they make it
better fit to ennoble life for all. The enduring memories of the Bible and their fresh
transmissions remains alive, active, and transformative.
39
For information on this category, see Freykenberg, Robert Eric: “Āvarna and Adivāsi Christians and
Missions: A Paradigm for Understanding Christian Movements in India,” International Bulletin of
Missionary Research, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2008, pp. 14–20.
17
SUGGESTED FURTHER READINGS
The Baptist Mission in Serampore
Carey, William: Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the
Conversion of the Heathens, in which the Religious State of the different Nations of
the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of further
Undertakings are considered, Leicester: Ann Ireland, 1792.
Chatterjee, Sunil Kumar (ed.): Family Letters of Dr. William Carey, Serampore:
Carey Library and Research Centre, 2002.
Daniel, J.T.K.: William Carey’s Arrival in India, 1793–1993: Bicentenary Volume:
Serampore College, 1818–1993, Serampore: Bicentenary Celebration Committee,
1993.
Potts, E. Daniel: British Baptist Missionaries in India, 1793–1837: the History of
Serampore and its Missions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
The Lutherans in Tranquebar
Germann, Wilhelm: “Die wissenschaftliche Arbeit unserer alten Tamulen-Missionare
mit Berücksichtigung neuerer Leistungen,“ Missionsnachrichten der Ostindischen
Missionsanstalt zu Halle, 1865, No. 1, pp. 1–27, No. 2, pp. 53–81 and No. 3, pp.
85–119.
Gross, Andreas, et. al., (eds.): Halle and the Beginning of Protestant Christianity in
India, Three Volumes, Halle: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen, 2006.
Jeyaraj, Daniel: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg: the Father of Modern Protestant Mission:
an Indian Assessment, Delhi: ISPCK, 2006.
Lehmann, Arno: It Began in Tranquebar: the Story of the Tranquebar Mission and
the Beginnings of Protestant Christianity in India, Madras: Christian Literature
Society, 1956.
Nørgaard, Anders: Mission und Obrigkeit: die Dänish-Hallesche Mission in
Tranquebar, 1706–1845, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1988.
Rosenkilde, Volmer: Printing at Tranquebar, 1712–1845, London: Biographical
Society, 1949.
Sandegren, Johannes: From Tranquebar to Serampore, Serampore: Serampore
College, 1956.